Kay Brown

After a flurry of housing developments in Leeds, people can now enjoy living at a desirable location on the River Aire while being less than a mile away from the city centre. A top spot for joggers and cyclists, the River Aire stretches over 71 miles; from Malham right down to the remote town of Airmyn. Here are the top places to eat, drink and see as you travel down the canal: Bingley  Bingley Music LiveWikimedia Commons   To visit: Bingley Music Live is an annual festival that runs over the first weekend in September and has quickly become a popular pop and indie festival which has in the past featured such artists as Super Furry Animals, Idlewild, Ella Eyre and James were among headliners. To eat: Walking along the canal can be hungry work, and Bingley’s Foundry Hill Bar and Lounge is the perfect place to kick back and relax for a few hours. Located in the town, it has gorgeous views of the city’s architecture and it is famous among residents for the quality of both its food and service.   Saltaire  Salts Mill from Leeds Liverpool CanalWikimedia Commons   To visit: Sat right on the Leeds-Liverpool Canal, Salts Mill is a must see in the quaint Victorian model village near Bradford. The UNESCO World Heritage Site contains an art gallery, shopping and various restaurants which can easily see you while away a whole day. To eat: Saltaire Canteen is one of the handful of cafes which use food waste and a pay as you feel policy to reduce food going to landfill and help elimina

Whether it's art, food, drink, music or theatre, Leeds is a hugely creative city responsible for an impressive output of innovative and experimental ideas. As such a melting pot of culture and talent, the people of Leeds are looking for ever more imaginative ways in which to house their creativity. This has led to an amazing amount of spaces popping up all over the city that empower those who take a DIY approach to their creative output.  We look at five of the most prominent and what makes them so special: Chunk <img id="c6c0e6dc-9135-2249-d951-903c9d9181fc" data-caption="" data-credit="Chunk" data-width-class="" type="image/jpeg" total="332830" loaded="332830" image_id="102920492" src="http://media.timeout.com/images/102920492/image.jpg" class="photo lazy inline"> Chunk   Like many creative art spaces that cater to the DIY music scene in Leeds, Chunk is an unsung hero often overlooked when it comes to industry funding. As a co-operative used mainly as a band rehearsal space, it benefits from the views and opinions of a variety of people. Its empathetic standpoint has enabled the space to become a go-to for many of those escaping austerity and its active encouragement of a ‘safer-space’ means many can go without feeling excluded. As the chosen space for the gender inclusive, diverse club night Come Thru and its own ‘Renegades of Chunk’ mini festival, the venue has fully embraced Leeds' underground music culture. Leeds Hackspace <img id="7ab96341-8db1-63

There's nothing like a spot of spring sunshine to remind you that your limbs haven't been seen in daylight for a long time. Shedding the layers we've been hiding under throughout winter can be daunting, but instead let it motivate you to move a little more and regain that shorts-wearing confidence. There are plenty of fun ways to get moving in Leeds. A morning raveWhile clubbing until the early hours of Wednesday morning might not go down too well with your boss, a booze-free danceathon complete with yoga and smoothies might be the answer. Early-morning midweek mini-festival Morning Gloryville launched in the city last month with plenty of hype and they're returning this month across three floors at Belgrave Music Hall and Canteen on Wednesday March 26 to encourage you to dig out your glow-sticks and rave yourself into the day. If you're awoken by little ones at what might otherwise feel like an ungodly hour, you'll be relieved to hear that the event is child-friendly and you can take your brood along to burn off some of that inexplicable morning energy. A burlesque workoutFor those who like to move a little more seductively, there's a burlesque-inspired workout on a Tuesday evenings from 8pm at Yorkshire Dance, which cleverly distracts you from the interval training you're doing by integrating props into the session – swoosh a feather boa in the air, shake your shimmy, glide over a chair. You'll be feeling like Dita Von Teese in no time. BurleX Fitness Leeds An exercise se

Unanimously loved by the fashion press, from Stylist to Marie Claire, Judy's Affordable Vintage Fair is well-known for bringing you old-world glamour that, strangely enough, is never old hat. This Saturday (March 14) they return to the Corn Exchange for their latest extravaganza. Vintage has become increasingly known for its high prices and delicate designer items, but there's still the opportunity to bag yourself a bargain at pop-up fairs like the Leeds' own Judy's. Forty stalls of vintage treasures will sparkle under the Corn Exchange's domed roof from 10am-5pm as Judy's recreates the vibe of some of Europe's best-known flea markets.  Fashionistas can expect to find dresses and cocktail shakers for Gatsby-like revelry alongside new season staples and retro 90s prints. If you're a fan of Mad Men, you might find yourself distracted by the vintage furniture, homewares and collectibles. Judy's is the UK's leading vintage fair, curating the best vintage retailers from across the country in knock-out settings. So time to crank up the kitsch and see what bargains you can pick up this weekend. More fashion on Time Out Leeds.

Whether you like a pie with a crispy pastry lid, a crumbly crust, a mashed potato lid or even a sliced potato top, one thing is for certain – if you're a pie connoisseur like Paul Hollywood, you don't want a pie with a soggy bottom. Pies in Leeds fell out of favour when restaurants and bars adopted menus packed with ribs and burgers – Nation of Shopkeepers' goats cheese and butternut squash pie was to die for – rather than your traditional pastry pie. But they're returning, wading through the piles of pulled pork, to remind us why we love a good filling encased in buttery pastry. Some of the city's most-loved pies aren't available on a day-to-day basis, instead appearing at pop-up events and sporting fixtures, which means you're always left wanting more. Here's a round-up of some unlikely pie places to seek out during British Pie Week. The Greedy PigThe Greedy Pig might look like your average greasy spoon from the outside, when it's packed with builders and construction workers scoffing hearty breakfasts. But when you step into the functional space – with added touches like fresh flowers – you knows there's more to this place than meets the eye. As well as the usual, The Greedy Pig offer a selection of highly-regarded menus via their supper clubs and pie nights. Their pie nights began last year as a series of fundraising evenings so that Jo and Stu could provide a customer loo. Owing to their success, the pies have found themselves on the supper club menus. The supper clubs t

Leeds' fashion heritage might be firmly in tailoring, with the success of Burton and J Hepworth and Son, who were once he UK's largest clothing company and gave us sister brand Next, but 2015 could be the year we see a new path emerge for fashion designers and manufacturers in the city. For the sartorial-minded among you, here's how you can indulge your love of cloth… Lambert's YardAt the tail-end of 2014, Lambert's Yard re-opened as a permanent space in the heart of the city's oldest building and kickstarted a New Fashion Pioneer programme in association with the Centre for Fashion Enterprise (CFE). Following on from its successful introduction earlier in the year, the new partnership – the first with the CFE outside of London – highlighted a demand in the Leeds area from emerging and existing designers for greater infrastructure support outside of the traditional education routes. The Pioneer programme provides designers with strategic support tailored (arf!) to their business and offers retail opportunities via Lambert's Yard. There are seminars and events running in tandem, which offer advice and the chance to meet up with Lambert's buyer Adam Jagger and other industry bods. Your immediate impression of Lambert's Yard may be its on-trend shop but delve deeper and there's details of the CFE programme in-store and it's worth following their Twitter account to find out about forthcoming events – we've heard whispers that their in-house event programme is going to be unmissab

Being gluten free in 2015 often feels like being a vegetarian in the 90s – there are few options and restaurants and cafés don't always understand what you can't have. Luckily, over the past few years a number of places in Leeds have improved labelling on their menus, introduced a range of options and learned that not all of us can have bread, pasta and a vast array of tasty treats and cakes – and not just because we're calorie counting. To save you building your own map of gluten-free friendly places here's a run down of three favourites, where you can be just as gluttonous as those who don't have to analyse menus for wheat, barley and other gluten nasties.  2 Oxford Place, City CentreLets face it, nowhere is going to beat a 100 per cent gluten-free restaurant and why should it? The option to browse an entire menu and feel like a kid in a sweet shop is an experience hard to come by so when the opportunity arises, grasp it with both hands. It doesn't matter if you're looking for an indulgent pancake brunch, a sophisticated three-course dinner or a cheeky sweet treat that isn't your standard shop-bought gluten-free cherry bakewell – 2 Oxford Place has it all. If only they were open on a Sunday again for their scrumptious Sunday lunch. For special occasions, 2 Oxford Place have set menus too. Go for Fritto Misto (calamari, whitebait and prawns with aioli), followed by chicken with wild mushrooms, and round it off with the assiette of puddings to share. 2 Oxford Place© Paula Br

The first line-up announcement from the Live at Leeds team highlights that the festival – one of the finest in the UK – is fast approaching. From May 2-5, you'll once again be able to see a selection of local performers – psych rockers Hookworms, the noisy Eagulls and new duo Bruising – alongside established and hotly-tipped acts like Thurston Moore, Slaves, Emmy The Great, MNEK, Tobias Esso Jr, Joanna Gruesome and many, many more at the main Saturday wristband event. Rather than second guess your taste in music and pick out a small number of must-see bands from the enormous and magnificent roll call of bands, we've highlighted five things that are likely to happen at this year's Live at Leeds. Some of the venues will feel further away from each other than ever beforeIt happens to us all – on paper it looks easy enough to get from one venue to another in a short space of time but the reality of power-walking on a stomach with beer sloshing around makes it rather more difficult. Give yourself plenty of time to meander and if you can't face the extra distance, pop into a closer venue (there are 20 involved) and you might be surprised by who you end up seeing. You'll forget to schedule foodWhen you're presented with a line-up that includes some of your favourite bands or acts you've been meaning to check out, scheduling seems like a doddle. But factor in walking time between venues and you probably haven't left enough time to eat. So a conundrum arises: miss a band so you can r

Hot on the heels of the first Live at Leeds (LAL) announcement, the Leeds Festival, which takes place August 28-30, have come out fighting with additions to their own line-up. Uke-wielding, brace-snapping former beardies Mumford and Sons, whose frontman Marcus worked on the soundtrack to Inside Llewyn Davis, return to the festival as main-stage headliners four years after playing the NME/Radio 1 tent. It's their first UK live show in over two years and signals that tracks recorded at their sessions with Arctic Monkeys producer James Ford could be winging their way to us very soon. Leeds Festival boss Melvin Benn is keeping tight-lipped about the third main-stage headliner. Royal Blood Continuing the teasing theme, Melvin has named just ten more acts that will perform across the festival. Those names include two-man rock powerhouse Royal Blood; local favourites Bastille, who catapulted to bigger stages following their performance at Live at Leeds in 2012; EDM man deadmau5; dancehall supergroup Rebel Sound (Chase and Status, Rage, David Rodigan and Shy FX); and fast-rising Welsh indie band Catfish and The Bottlemen.  They're joined by BBC Sound of 2015 Poll winners Years and Years, scuzzy grunge-pop outfit Wolf Alice, indie-punk four-piece Pretty Vicious, Jack Garratt and DJ Hannah Wants, making her Leeds Festival debut. Wolf AliceJordan Hughes They join last year's Glastonbury headliners Metallica, the freshly-returned and still mighty fine Jamie T, ferociously brilliant h